The facial features of people from West Africa exhibit a range of characteristics shaped by environmental factors, genetics, and historical events. While generalizations about "broad African type" can be misleading, certain recurring traits are often observed. This article explores these features, the potential reasons behind their prevalence, and the complexities surrounding racial classification.
Phenotypic Traits and Environmental Influences
One of the primary roles of the nose is to regulate the temperature of inhaled air. Consequently, the shape of the nose is subject to varying selection pressures depending on the environment. If the nose of *Homo Heidelbergensis* resembled what is sometimes perceived as a "broad African type," it could be attributed to a shared environment. However, it's crucial to acknowledge that nose shape varies significantly among African lineages, as well as among non-African lineages.
Diversity in human races.
Skin color is another significant point of resemblance that warrants consideration. *Homo Heidelbergensis* lived in Africa, sharing an environment similar to that encountered by modern Africans, but different from that of modern Han Chinese. This shared environment could potentially explain some similarities in skin color.
Facial features which are perceived as associated with dominance include low eyebrows, wide nose, relatively small (vertically short) eyes, and large chin. These facial features are also regarded as masculine and various measures of facial masculinity are associated with perceived dominance in male faces. Faces of women who attained higher scores in a questionnaire on personal dominance were likewise perceived as more masculine.
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Evo-Ed: History, Genetics, and Human Skin Color
The Social Construct of Race
It's important to emphasize that the concept of "Black race" is largely a social construct. While biological variation exists between human populations, contemporary anthropologists and scientists view racial classifications as social constructs. Different societies apply varying criteria for classifying individuals as "black," and these criteria have evolved over time. Societal variables, as much as skin color, influence classification in many countries, and the social criteria for "blackness" differ.
In the anglosphere, the term "black" carries different meanings depending on the country. While "person of color" is generally accepted in the United States, the term "colored person" is considered highly offensive, except in South Africa, where it describes a person of mixed race. In regions like Australia and Melanesia, settlers used the adjective "black" to refer to the indigenous population.
Distribution of skin color across the globe.
Historical Context and Social Stratification
Numerous communities of dark-skinned peoples are present in North Africa, some dating back to prehistoric times. In the 21st century, Afro-multiracials in the Arab world, including Arabs in North Africa, self-identify in ways similar to multi-racials in Latin America, according to Carlos Moore.
In South Africa, the colonial period led to unions and marriages between Europeans and Africans, resulting in mixed-race children. As European colonialists gained control, they relegated mixed-race and African populations to second-class status. The apartheid government classified the population into four main racial groups: Black, White, Asian, and Coloured. The Coloured group comprised people of mixed Bantu, Khoisan, and European ancestry. The apartheid bureaucracy used complex criteria, including the "pencil test," to determine racial classification.
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During the apartheid era, those classified as "Coloured" faced oppression and discrimination, though they had limited rights and slightly better socioeconomic conditions than those classified as "Black." Post-apartheid, South Africa's Constitution declared the country a "Non-racial democracy." The ANC government introduced affirmative action policies for Blacks, defining "Black" people to include "Africans", "Coloureds", and "Asians."
Diaspora and Mixed Ancestry
"Afro-Asians" or "African-Asians" are individuals of mixed sub-Saharan African and Asian ancestry. Several factors have influenced the visibility of this diaspora in 21st-century Arab societies. The traders shipped more female slaves than males, as there was a demand for them to serve as concubines in harems in the Arabian Peninsula and neighboring countries. Male slaves were castrated in order to serve as harem guards.
Distinctive and self-identified black communities have been reported in countries such as Iraq, with a reported 1.2 million black people (Afro-Iraqis), and they attest to a history of discrimination. These descendants of the Zanj have sought minority status from the government, which would reserve some seats in Parliament for representatives of their population.
About 150,000 East African and black people live in Israel, amounting to just over 2% of the nation's population. The vast majority of these, some 120,000, are Beta Israel, most of whom are recent immigrants who came during the 1980s and 1990s from Ethiopia. Beginning several centuries ago, during the period of the Ottoman Empire, tens of thousands of Zanj captives were brought by slave traders to plantations and agricultural areas situated between Antalya and Istanbul, which gave rise to the Afro-Turk population in present-day Turkey.
Model structure and density plots representing the posterior margins of selected coefficients (on a standardised scale) by sex and sample.
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Facial Dominance and Sexual Dimorphism
Perceived facial dominance is associated with perceived and measured physical strength. Facial features associated with perceived dominance include low eyebrows, a wide nose, relatively small eyes, and a large chin. These features are also considered masculine, and various measures of facial masculinity are linked to perceived dominance in male faces.
Masculine/feminine features reflect differences in sex hormone levels. Feminine facial traits in women are related to relatively higher estrogen levels or a low testosterone-to-estradiol ratio. The development of masculine traits is directed by testosterone. Perceived facial masculinity and dominance are often seen as indicators of strength and potential for threatening behavior.
Skin color also influences the perception of facial sex-typicality. Redness increases perceived dominance, and male faces are characteristically perceived as darker than female faces, even when they are equally light. Facial shape and color can affect perception in opposing ways, with male facial attractiveness being negatively affected by masculine facial shape but positively affected by masculine skin reflectance.
Studies show that in Cameroonian (African) raters, skin color predicts perceived dominance and sex-typicality more than in Czech (European) samples, where facial shape has a relatively greater impact on ratings.
Table 1: Stimuli Counts and Descriptive Statistics
| Dataset | Males | Females | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cameroon | 40 | 40 | 80 |
| Czechia | 40 | 40 | 80 |
